One of the inevitabilities of being a professor is that the incoming students seem to get progressively younger while you get older. The Beloit College Mindset List is a great way to keep this generational gap in mind when you enter the classroom and to get a sense of the worldviews and life perspectives of your students. Since I teach about comparative and historical social issues, it’s important for me to remember that things that are part of my historical perspective are probably not even vaguely familiar to many undergraduates. The items on this year’s list that are most relevant for my research and teaching are:
- What Berlin wall?
- Russia has always had a multi-party political system.
- Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.
